ARCHIVED ISSUES
WEC @ WORK
A newsletter on key occupational
and environmental issues.

EDUCATION, POLICY & ACTION FOR GOOD JOBS, SAFE WORKPLACES & A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT 

Exchange with Environment Commissioner Highlights WEC Policy Forum: WORKERS SHOULD BE PART OF ENVIRONMENTAL inspections
WEC’s Public Policy Forum December 6 at the United Auto Workers in Trenton featured a lively give-and-take with Bradley Campbell, Commissioner of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and James Blumenstock, Senior Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Health and Senior Services.  The exchange covered issues ranging from worker participation in environmental enforcement to production of Hazardous Substance Fact Sheets that are an important part of the state’s Right to Know law. Full Story

NEW LAW REGULATES PESTICIDES IN SCHOOLS
What a difference a year makes.  A national bill to    regulate spraying of pesticides in schools didn’t make it out of a US Senate committee last year.  Afterwards, one Washington insider said there was no explanation "except the influence of the chemical industry." But one year later state legislation has faired better.  On   December 12 Governor Jim McGreevey signed the nation’s strongest law protecting children and school employees from pesticides in schools — setting the stage for renewal of the national fight. Full Story

UNIONS CONCERNED ABOUT SMALL POX PLAN
At a December 20 meeting hosted by WEC, health care unions were briefed by Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, NJ State Epidemiologist and Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Health and Senior Services, about plans to vaccinate health care workers for small pox. Full Story

NJ ACTIVISTS ATTEND ENVIRONMENTAL SUMMIT
The NJ Work Environment Council (WEC) and activists from across New Jersey were among more than a thousand of  participants at the Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit October 23-27 in Washington, DC. Full Story

HEALTHY SCHOOLS are the goal of legislation that cleared New Jersey’s Senate Environmental Committee last week calling for strict limitations on the use of pesticides in the state’s schools.  The School Integrated Pest Management Act would require all public and private schools to abandon routine pesticide use in favor of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) — pest control practices using the least toxic controls possible and therefore causing the least harm to the environment. Full Story
 

PHILLIPS REBUFFS UNION’S REQUEST FOR INFO ABOUT HAZARD PREVENTION, SITE SECURITY
Management of Phillips 66 Company’s Bayway Refinery in Linden has refused to provide the plant’s union with accident prevention information even though state law requires the company to do so. Full Story

MANY POLLUTERS LACK AIR PERMITS
One third of all major  industrial sources of air pollution in NJ lack permits required under the  federal Clean Air Act (CAA).  Many of NJ’s worst air polluters are thus shielded from regulatory control and public scrutiny. Full Story

WORKERS, COMMUNITY OPPOSE   PLAN FOR TAINTED WASTEWATER
Residents and workers continued the fight this month to stop water tainted by radiation from flowing through sewers under Camden County. A Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA) plan would take water contaminated by radioactive uranium and radium from the GEMS Superfund site in Gloucester Township through miles of   residential sewer mains.  It would then run through the CCMUA treatment plant before being discharged into the Delaware River. Full Story 

toxics with staying power
NJ’s top 10 emitters of "persistent bio-accumulative toxics" —   substances remaining in the  environment and accumulating in  the body. Annual  figures in pounds. Full Story
 

WORKERS, COMMUNITY FIGHT THREAT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTEWATER IN SOUTH JERSEY
Residents and workers in South Jersey are fighting a plan to allow water tainted by radiation to flow through sewer mains under the heart of Camden County this summer.  The Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA) plan would take water contaminated by     radioactive uranium and radium from the GEMS Landfill in Gloucester Township — a federal Superfund site — and discharge it into the Delaware River. Full Story

WEC BACKS GOV’S CORPORATE TAX PLAN
WEC joined a coalition of 37 labor, environmental and public interest organizations this month to support Governor Jim McGreevey’s proposed $600 million increase in corporate taxes — an effort to address the state’s record-setting deficit.  The Governor is proposing an “alternative minimum assessment” (AMA) based on a  company’s sales, payroll and property value.  Corporations would be required to pay the current nine percent tax on  profits or the AMA — whichever is higher. Full Story
 

Corzine pushes chemical industry to safeguard workers, communities

U.S. Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) says tougher security measures and hazard reduction strategies are needed in the chemical industry to adequately safeguard workers and communities. Full Story

New jersey may become first state to enact Environmental equity rules
The NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) held three public hearings in March to solicit comments about proposed rules intended to prevent the  discriminatory impact of polluting industries on minority communities in the state.  Full Story
 

In New Jersey, the same people who are shortchanged and discriminated against are likely to be those who are dumped on with toxic chemicals and waste.  Recent academic studies confirm this unfair treatment — but it is plain to anyone living in or near Paterson, Newark, Camden or the state’s other poor, urban centers.  Full Story  

CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTION BACKED BY TWO BIG UNIONS

An unprecedented coalition,  including leaders of two of the country’s largest labor unions, came together February 20 to call for action to combat global warming while protecting economic security for workers and the economy. The group also backed a study released by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for a Sustainable Economy that outlines a plan to achieve a “worker-friendly” clean energy plan. Full Story

DHSS LAYS OFF KEY SPANISH-SPEAKING STAFFER

Astaffer who managed Spanish-language translations in the state’s chemical Right to Know Program in the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) was laid off on January 25 along with 600 other state workers. Full Story
 

January 2002
WORKERS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS ADDRESS SITE SECURITY AT CHEMICAL FACILITIES

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, an effort to assess site security at chemical facilities in New Jersey has been launched by labor and      environmental advocates. The project is a joint effort of WEC, New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, New Jersey  Environmental Federation and the Northeast Area Resource Center of the Paperworkers, Allied-Industrial and Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE). Full Story

Gone but not forgotten ...CONFLICT OF INTEREST FOR WHITMAN? The ombudsman for the Environmental Protection Agency filed a lawsuit January 10 claiming he was punished by Administrator Christine Todd Whitman after he objected to an agreement to restrict penalties required of Citigroup for a Superfund cleanup in Denver, Colorado.  Citigroup is a principal investor in Sycamore Ventures, Whitman’s husband's venture capital firm. Full Story 

WEC STAFF, BOARD HELP McGREEVEY TRANSITION
Two WEC staff members and four members of the Board of Directors were named last month to transition teams of  Governor-elect Jim McGreevey.  The transition teams, which are linked to specific state agencies, provide guidance to the new Governor and cabinet members on a range of policy issues. Full Story

 

November 2001

UNIONS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS JOIN FORCES IN FIGHT AGAINST “FAST TRACK” TRADE PACT

In an attempt to exploit the changed political climate since September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, some Republicans in the U.S. House of  Representatives are pushing for a vote December 6 on controversial “fast track” trade legislation.  They are linking the trade bill to President Bush's   response to terrorist threats and international instability. Full Story

POLICY PROPOSALS READIED FOR MCGREEVEY
WEC’s package of Policy Proposals for Safe Workplaces and A Healthy  Environment, officially endorsed by 70 organizations last spring, will be presented to Governor-Elect Jim McGreevey in early December. Full Story

UNION ACTION AVERTS COSTLY MOVE OF NJ OCCUPTIONAL HEALTH SERVICE
When word spread last summer that Christine Grant, former Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, wanted to split and move the agency’s Occupational Health Service (OHS) staff to two other buildings so she could create a posh suite for herself and other top-level staff, workers in the department used the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) to put a stop to it. Full Story
 

OR SPEED UP SAFETY CHANGES? By Rick Engler and Jim Young

Since September 11, it has become all too apparent that the methods used to attack the World Trade  Center and Pentagon – namely, utilizing our own technology as a weapon against us – suggest the need for new counter-terrorism efforts focusing on safety at the many chemical facilities storing hazardous materials in New Jersey and across the country. The possibility of a terrorist hijacker flying a plane into an oil refinery or chemical plant no longer seems far-fetched and the safety of workers and neighboring communities cannot be taken for granted. Full Story

 

OUTPOURING OF HELP FROM NJ WORKERS AFTER ATTACK ON WORLD TRADE CENTER
In the aftermath of the jarring attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, workers from  throughout New Jersey are contributing to the heroic rescue and recovery effort.  Among those on the scene are New Jersey fire fighters, police officers, health care workers, emergency medical services workers, building and construction trade workers, telecommunications and maritime   workers.  Thousands of other workers have donated their time to help in other ways, from delivering of supplies to raising money for victims and their families. Full Story

FIGHT FOR FAIRNESS IN GLOBAL TRADE UNITES LABOR AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Terrorist attacks on September 11 caused cancellation of meetings by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC that were to be the focus of massive protests.  But in the weeks ahead, the U.S. Congress is still likely to take up a proposal to give President Bush "fast-track" authority to negotiate a sweeping Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) without meaningful environmental or workplace protections. Full Story

 

BUSH ENERGY PLAN SPLITS LABOR AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS
President Bush’s energy plan — including oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and opposition to increased auto fuel efficiency — has caused a “jobs versus environment” rift this summer between organized labor and environmentalists. The U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to approve the    President’s full energy plan after fierce lobbying that pitted some of the nation’s largest labor unions against national environmental organizations. Full Story
 

LABORERS’ UNION, NEIGHBORS FIGHT ASBESTOS FROM NEW BRUNSWICK HOUSING DEMOLITION
Construction laborers and residents of a neighborhood in New Brunswick joined forces this summer in an attempt to prevent unnecessary public and worker exposure to asbestos debris resulting from demolition of New Brunswick Memorial Homes, four federally-owned housing projects that are being demolished. Full Story

CLOSING SMALL CHEMICAL PLANTS “EASIER,” SAYS TRADE GROUP DIRECTOR
In an interview published in the June issue of Chemical Week magazine, Hal Bozarth, Executive Director of the New Jersey Chemical Industry Council, said “I think you will see less specialty (chemical) firms in the state … In the long-term it would probably be easier to close the small companies down.”  Bozarth’s hypocritical comment comes after he has for two decades claimed that environmental regulation is a chief cause of plant shut-downs.  His statement is part of a story about the impact of the global economy on the state’s chemical industry, which has seen many employers closing plants and moving to   developing countries, where wages and other production costs are cheaper. Full Story

BERGEN WORKERS AVERT PRIVATIZATION THAT WOULD THREATEN DRINKING WATER
About 100 members of Utility Workers Union of America Local 534 and their environmental and labor allies erupted in cheers at a June 21 meeting of the Bergen County Utilities Authority (BCUA) after commissioners voted to end efforts to privatize the county’s wastewater disposal system.  The system serves 600,000 residents in 47 municipalities throughout Bergen County. Full Story

BRIEFING SHINES LIGHT ON GLOBAL WARMING  
On May 22 WEC sponsored a briefing on global warming and what it will mean for New Jersey’s jobs and environment at the Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in New Brunswick.  It was attended by 34 participants from seven local unions and four environmental organizations, including six members of WEC’s Board of Directors. Full Story